Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu, Esprit des lois [The Spirit of Laws]

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Montesquieu’s

De l’Esprit des Lois

is a monumental work of political theory which was one of the most influential texts of the French Enlightenment, and its impact spread well beyond France. It stands as Montesquieu’s

magnum opus

, and was more than twenty years in the making. The author’s immense breadth of reading and erudition matches the mammoth scope of its intention: to analyse the different types of political structures of all human societies throughout history and investigate the relationship between the types of regimes and all aspects of their societies. The book aimed to uncover the rationale of all laws of different human societies, considered from a socio-political perspective. Laws are understood as being shaped by, and shaping, all aspects of human life. This means…

2312 words

Citation: Treuherz, Nick. "Esprit des lois". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 January 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5333, accessed 28 March 2024.]

5333 Esprit des lois 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.